​GOZZOLI, BENOZZO, Italian painter, was born in Florence
in 1424, or perhaps 1420, and in the early part of his career
assisted Fra Angelico, whom he followed to Rome and worked
with at Orvieto. In Rome he executed in Santa Maria in
Aracoeli a fresco of "St Anthony and Two Angels." In 1449
he left Angelico, and went to Montefalco, near Foligno in Umbria.
In S. Fortunato, near Montefalco, he painted a "Madonna and
Child with Saints and Angels," and three other works. One of
these, the altar-piece representing "St Thomas receiving the
Girdle of the Virgin," is now in the Lateran Museum, and
shows the affinity of Gozzoli's early style to Angelico's. He
next painted in the monastery of S. Francesco, Montefalco,
filling the choir with a triple course of subjects from the life
of the saint, with various accessories, including heads of Dante,
Petrarch and Giotto. This work was completed in 1452, and
is still marked by the style of Angelico, crossed here and there
with a more distinctly Giottesque influence. In the same church,
in the chapel of St Jerome, is a fresco by Gozzoli of the Virgin
and Saints, the Crucifixion and other subjects. He remained
at Montefalco (with an interval at Viterbo) probably till 1456,
employing Mezzastris as assistant. Thence he went to Perugia,
and painted in a church a "Virgin and Saints," now in the local
academy, and soon afterwards to his native city Florence, the headquarters
of art. By the end of 1459 he had nearly finished
his most important labour in the chapel of the Palazzo Riccardi, the
"Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem," and, in the tribune of
this chapel, a composition of "Angels in a Paradise." His
picture in the National Gallery, London, a "Virgin and Child
with Saints," 1461, belongs also to the period of his Florentine
sojourn. Another small picture in the same gallery, the "Rape
of Helen," is of dubious authenticity. In 1464 Gozzoli left
Florence for S. Gimignano, where he executed some extensive
works; in the church of S. Agostino, a composition of St
Sebastian protecting the City from the Plague of this same
year, 1464; over the entire choir of the church, a triple course
of scenes from the legends of St Augustine, from the time of
his entering the school of Tegaste on to his burial, seventeen
chief subjects, with some accessories; in the Pieve di S.
Gimignano, the “Martyrdom of Sebastian,” and other subjects,
and some further works in the city and its vicinity. Here his
style combined something of Lippo Lippi with its original
elements, and he received co-operation from Giusto d'Andrea.
He stayed in this city till 1467, and then began, in the Campo
Santo of Pisa, from 1469, the vast series of mural paintings
with which his name is specially identified. There are twenty-four
subjects from the Old Testament, from the "Invention of
Wine by Noah" to the "Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon."
He contracted to paint three subjects per year for about ten
ducats each—a sum which may be regarded as equivalent to
​£100 at the present day. It appears, however, that this contract
was not strictly adhered to, for the actual rate of painting was
only three pictures in two years. Perhaps the great multitude
of figures and accessories was accepted as a set-off against the
slower rate of production. By January 1470 he had executed
the fresco of “Noah and his Family,”—followed by the “Curse
of Ham,” the “Building of the Tower of Babel” (which contains
portraits of Cosmo de’ Medici, the young Lorenzo Politian and
others), the “Destruction of Sodom,” the “Victory of Abraham,”
the “Marriages of Rebecca and of Rachel,” the “Life of Moses,”
&c. In the Cappella Ammannati, facing a gate of the Campo
Santo, he painted also an “Adoration of the Magi,” wherein
appears a portrait of himself. All this enormous mass of work,
in which Gozzoli was probably assisted by Zanobi Macchiavelli,
was performed, in addition to several other pictures during his
stay in Pisa (we need only specify the “Glory of St Thomas
Aquinas,” now in the Louvre), in sixteen years, lasting up to
1485. This is the latest date which can with certainty be
assigned to any work from his hand, although he is known to
have been alive up to 1498. In 1478 the Pisan authorities had
given him, as a token of their regard, a tomb in the Campo
Santo. He had likewise a house of his own in Pisa, and houses
and land in Florence. In rectitude of life he is said to have been
worthy of his first master, Fra Angelico.

The art of Gozzoli does not rival that of his greatest contemporaries
either in elevation or in strength, but is pre-eminently
attractive by its sense of what is rich, winning, lively and
abundant in the aspects of men and things. His landscapes,
thronged with birds and quadrupeds, especially dogs, are more
varied, circumstantial and alluring than those of any predecessor;
his compositions are crowded with figures, more characteristically
true when happily and gracefully occupied than when the demands
of the subject require tragic or dramatic intensity, or turmoil
of action; his colour is bright, vivacious and festive. Gozzoli’s
genius was, on the whole, more versatile and assimilative than
vigorously original; his drawing not free from considerable
imperfections, especially in the extremities and articulations,
and in the perspective of his gorgeously-schemed buildings.
In fresco-painting he used the methods of tempera, and the decay
of his works has been severe in proportion. Of his untiring
industry the recital of his labours and the number of works
produced are the most forcible attestation.

Vasari, Crowe and Cavalcaselle, and the other ordinary authorities, can be consulted as to the career of Gozzoli. A separate Life of him, by H. Stokes, was published in 1903 in Newnes’s Art library.